THE SECRET OF CHARM

Shannon News, 9 April 1926, Page 3

THE SECRET OF CHARM

REVEALED BY SARAH BERNHARDT. By Sisley Huddleston. . Charm is not the art of the actor, but it is a quality which, according to Sarah Bernhardt, is indispensable. Without charm all the rest is vain. One may possess every quality, physical and moral, enumerated by the greatest actress of our times and yet never reach the topmost heights for lack of charm. A good memory, a well-proportioned figure, a rich voice a perfect enupiciatipn, an appropriate command of gesture, natural talents, improved by sound instruction, willpower and perseverence, and the most exquisite sensibility will: not suffice. ,There must be added that Indefinable something which is called charm. Sarah Bernhardt being dead. yet. speaketh. There has been published a book written by her and put into shape by M. Marcel Berger on the Art of the Theatre. It is not a text-book but it is more illuminating than any text-book. Nobody who is interested in the theatre can afford to miss it. In these somewhat discursive pages, there are casual hints, significant revelations, and pertinent opinions which are the result of sixty years experience of the stage by one of the most conscieutious of artists.

Her energy was amazing. For me one of Ihe signs of the truly great artist in any place sphere is extraordinary activity. It may be that exceptional activity is another name for genius. Those who just fall short of supremacy arc often without this super-abundant life—the real masters never. When Sarah Bernhardt was over 75 years of age, and was still regularly appearing an the stage, she wrote novels "to amuse herself." But she always wished to leave a book which would be useful to her successors In what she was pleased to call her spare time she dictated voluminously_observations, advice, reminiscences, pell-mell. It is out of this mass of notes that the present work has been drawn. Throughout the book she insists in one form or anoth. er on the need of charm. She expresses herself in a variety of ways, but the refrain is constant. One passage will give the key to the whole of these pages:— . "There is the je ne sais quoi which holds, the attention of the public For want of the right word this je ne sais quoi has been called charm. It w necessary to have charm to reach the pinnacle. Qharm is made, of everything and of nothing. There is the combative will, the expression, the deportment, the proportions of tne figure, the sound of the voice, the grace of the gestures. There is no need to be handsome or pretty; but there must be charm, the charm which fixes the attention of the spectator.